Displaying element type in diagrams

[Jirin]

Hi all,
is there a way, how to display elements' types, eventually also relations' types, in diagrams? In various examples including Gerben's Mastering ArchiMate I see such a notation with the element type in brackets, like "My Module (Application Component)". I hope it is not hard typed in the element name?
Thanks

[prgee]

Archi does not have a way to do this automatically but I have used the following workaround to avoid having to manually add it to each element:

For each type of element I plan to use I create a template element with the name formatted the way I want and add any User Properties that relate to it. For example, I use one named "(Business Unit) name" for an actor that represents a business unit and add user properties "BU:Manager:Name" and "BU:FTEcount".

Each time I need to create a new instance of this I simply use the Ctrl+D command to duplicate it and replace "name" with the actual name. Ctrl+D will also copy the user properties so it helps enforce consistency. Since the template name begins with the "(" character and Archi sorts elements alphabetically within folders it always appears at the top of the list. Also, as long as you select the "Display unused elements in italics" option in Preferences, the template should always show in italics since you would never include it in a diagram view.

Simple but effective!

Regards,
Peter